Pumpkin Drop

[Tom Martin]

After the recent Courtland SARL race there was a pumpkin dropping competition. Transport Canada frowns on this type of activity but you can still have fun in the USA and I was looking forward to participating. There were a couple of 150s there that would take you for a ride and you could drop the pumpkin while and instructor operated the controls. However I wanted to drop one from my EVO rocket. There is no way I am going to fly with an open cockpit thus another method had to be figured out. I have a cowl flap and I briefly considered loading up the cowling with some smallish fruits but the thoughts of pumpkin pie smells squashed that idea. The EVO wing has a flat wing tip and I turned my attention to some sort of release mechanism.
What I came up with was a pivoting spear that is actuated by an electric solenoid. I installed three nutplates on the wing tip and the unit can be mounted in a couple of minutes. The pumpkin is rammed onto the spear, I have a five pound limit, and then, with some trepidation, you take off with an orange fruit sticking out from your wing tip.
When the switch is deployed the spear drops, quite quickly I might add, and away goes the pumpkin. The trick, is in knowing when to release the load.
At 100 knots and 500'agl they will travel about 250 feet and there is a bit of guess work as to when you actually get to the 250 foot mark! It turns out that pumpkins, from 500 agl, are also greatly affected by wind drift.
I have to land for reloading, and I made two drops that day. My first drop was about 500 feet short of the target much to the amusement of the spectators. I was accused of premature pumqulation . On the second run I was respectively close to the target. Next year I might just have one mounted on both wing tips!

As for the race I had a personal best time of 270 mph.

[Alan Carroll]

This was really clever; the actuator looked better made than some airplanes I've seen. All Tom needs now is a better bombsight...

[N941WR]

Tom,

I've often thought of creating some kind of rack that screws into the tie down hard point. Then you could run the wire out of the nearest inspection plate and remove the entire thing when finished.

My problem is we have flour drops and I'm thinking a paper bag would rip wide open, even at 100.

No you have me thinking about this again.

[Tom Martin]

Duhhhh, my wing tie down is right at the end of the wing. I could just as easily have used that rather then putting holes and nutplates in my wing tip!

[Norman CYYJ]

Tom you might want to start scouring the surplus stores for a bomb sight. Or make one up using a small TV camera and screen.